What's for Dinner

With Ella's upcoming first birthday party on the agenda, simple is the name of the game when it comes to dinner this week... Not that it isn't always, but my to-do list these next few days is quite a bit longer than normal, and I just won't have time to be preparing gourmet dinners.

{photo via}

Monday

My cousin, who is a talented chef, and writes an impressive food blog, turned me on to this one pot pasta, and it has become a staple recipe for us. It's super easy to prepare, and delicious. I'll serve it with some crusty bread and a light side salad.

Tuesday

I'm totally intrigued by these ranch chicken fajita bowls, and being the Mexican food fanatic that I am, I figured we ought to give them a whirl this week. Served with a side of warm corn tortillas, some sour cream and avocado... I can't imagine that they'll be anything but good.

Wednesday

Last fall, we attended a local Hatch Chile festival and tasted a ton of incredible foods that followed along with the festival's theme (obviously, Hatch chiles). One item in particular that stuck with us after the festival, were these sort of open-faced hatch chile sandwiches/flatbreads... I'm not really quite sure what to call them, but essentially, you take a piece of focaccia bread (we picked some up at Trader Joe's), and top it with freshly roasted hatch chiles (when hatche chiles aren't in season, we use poblanos or Anaheim peppers) and shavings of fresh asiago cheese. There so simple, but really tasty. We pair them with homemade baked sweet potato fries. (I promise to add a photo of these)

Thursday

We're big Monterey chicken fans in this house, so as you can imagine, this is a recipe we repeat often around here. We'll have this with corn and probably some sort of rice on the side.

Friday

As always, this is our easy take-out or appetizer night. These caprese meatballs sound delightful, perhaps I will substitute ground chicken for the ground beef to lighten things up a bit. I think some bruschetta would pair well with this... and obviously, because it is Friday, some wine... but not too much, because we have a big birthday to celebrate the next day!

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

-J

What's For Dinner

As promised, here is the first, of what will hopefully be many posts, where I share our dinner plans for the week.  If you didn't catch my most recent Swoon Worthy post, where I admitted that I am totally stuck in a dinner rut, and have been feeling in desperate need of some dinner inspiration, consider yourself caught you up to speed.

As I previously mentioned, many of these meal ideas will be linked to the sources where I found them, i.e. Pinterest, food blogs, magazines, and the occasional personal recipe. There likely won't be anything super fancy, we eat a lot of chicken, and tend to go for appetizers on Fridays... a little Happy Hour at home, if you will.

If nothing else, I'm hoping these weekly posts will keep me motivated to find new and different recipes to try, but I am hopeful that you will find some inspiration here as well.

So, without further ado, here's "What's for Dinner" this week:

Monday

Chicken Fajita Pasta  served with a side salad, and some garlic bread.  I will likely substitute fat free half and half for the heavy cream that this recipe calls for, and may use whole wheat pasta.

Tuesday

Pizza Chicken Roulades served with a side of broccoli and potatoes roasted in olive oil, s&p

Wednesday

Grilled pizza night! Sometimes I make my own dough, and sometimes I use store bought dough.  I roll it out, brush it with olive oil, and a little s&p, and then I grill it until it is not quite crispy or done.  Then we top them with sauce (store bought, or I sometimes buy a can of San Marzano tomatoes, and I throw them in the food processor with a clove of garlic, some s&p, a Tbs of Italian seasoning, and a tsp of red wine vinegar), and whatever toppings we have on hand, and throw them in the oven at 450 for a few minutes until the cheese is bubbling!

Thursday

Salsa Chicken and One Pan Mexican Quinoa "burrito bowls"

Friday

Quesadillas using leftover Salsa Chicken, homemade guacamole and chips. We usually fill large flour tortillas with chicken, shredded Mexican blend cheese, and canned green chiles, and we dip them in salsa and sour cream.

If dinner this week seems pretty simple, that's because it is.  I like things that are easy to prepare and don't require a million ingredients.  I do enjoy cooking, and like to try new things, so I promise not every week will be so boring.

Please feel free to send recipes and recommendations my way.  I'm always looking for fun new ideas to test out!  Hope you all have a great week!

-J

Swoon Worthy

This past week was chalk-full of that typical April-showers-bring-May flowers kind of weather. We've had temps as high as the 70's and then as low as the 40's (whomp whomp).  We've had thunder storms and rain so heavy, that the other night we lost our power while I was right in the middle of preparing dinner, and Mike was just about to start working on the bathroom renovation (which, by the way, I am beyond over at this point).

We've gotten to spend a fair amount of time outside, swinging, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and chasing bubbles from the bubble machine that the Easter Bunny brought for Max and Ella.  

This warmer weather always makes me feel so much more motivated to be out and about, and it certainly makes things so much easier, when you crew includes 2 tiny humans who are pretty much helpless when it comes to getting dressed and out the door. Saying goodbye to the cold means saying goodbye to heavy coats, and hats, and to that, I say Amen.

Since last year at this time I was 9 months pregnant, I didn't get to indulge in a lot of fun spring shopping, but I'm certainly making up for it this year.

Here's what I'm loving as of late...

1.  I am obsessed with Tazo's iced passion tea, so when I found this concentrated version of it at Target, I was beyond thrilled. I love it combined with just water, but combining it with equal parts lemonade is life changing, trust me!

2.  This tank top... I'm in love!

3.  I'm pretty sure I've posted about these bowls before, but I can't get enough, and keep going back for more.

4.  So, my BFF turned me on to this salty caramel flavored peanut butter, and it is insanely good. I love it on granny smith apples.

5.  Head-over-heels, doesn't even come close to describing how in love I am with my new monogrammed Downing Tote.  I snagged it on sale, and even though it was a bit of a splurge for me, I don't even feel guilty about the purchase, because the style of it is so classic and timeless, that I know I will be using it for years to come.

6.  Yet another awesome item from Boom Chicka Pop... we stumbled upon these new "bites" the other day, and just had to try them! Yum.

7.  Is there anything better than the smell of fresh lilacs in the spring?  I think not.  This soap smells so, so good!

8.  You guys know how much I love handmade shops.  I'm always swooning over the items from this one.  They're offering a 20% discount through Sunday with the code:  MOTHERSDAY.

9.  If you need a healthy daily dose of reality, as well a good chuckle, you must follow @womenirl on Insta! Their posts are hilarious.

10.  I absolutely MUST find a place in our house for this pillow!

That about wraps it up in terms of what I'm swooning over this week, but before I go, I wanted to share a little about a new series that I'm excited to be bringing to the blog.

Lately I've been feeling a bit "stuck in a rut" when it comes to meal planning and ideas for what to make for dinner. It seems I've been using some of the same recipes on heavy rotation around here, and I'm totally bored.

So, despite the fact that I am in no way, shape, or form, a food blogger, I've decided that I'm going to begin writing a weekly post, entitled "What's for Dinner".  I generally sit down to write my grocery list and outline what we'll be having for dinner for the week on Sundays, so look for these posts on either Sunday evenings, or on Monday along with our "Weekend Recap".

These posts are meant to provide some inspiration for those of you looking to try something new.  They won't necessarily be original recipes (although some will be), but more or less, they'll be a list of 5 meal ideas (give or take), with links, from Pinterest, food blogs, magazines, and other sources.

I'm hopeful that these posts will inspire me to be a bit more creative and motivated to find new and fun recipes to try, and that sharing them here will be helpful to you as readers. By all means, if you have some of your own tasty go-to recipes, I'd love to hear about them, so feel free to comment, or send along a link! I'm really looking forward to getting started on this.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great weekend!

-J